DeanWuBlog

Thanksgiving

By this time every year, the first year class is usually in the throes of collective panic. I’d like to assure everyone who has started to learn “how to think like a lawyer” but who hasn’t yet experienced an exam on the elements of a negligence action or what constitutes consideration or how to use a 12(b)(6) motion that, just like generations who have succeeded before them, virtually all of you will do fine and still be here next semester. While it would be useful to spend some of the Thanksgiving long weekend studying and outlining and perhaps meeting with your study group, it also would be good for you not only as a law student but also as human being to relax: eat and drink and socialize; watch the Lions game on television; see a movie at the multiplex; begin your holiday shopping; go for a leisurely walk. Indeed, discussing what you have learned – briefly – with your family and friends would be a good means of reviewing it for yourself. A good lawyer can explain the law to a layperson. After all, that is what you will be doing in practice. The majority of your clients will be laypeople.